Various products that reach the consumer and end user market are plagued with an obvious deficiency in that their ingredients, active compounds, or composition have an usable shelf life that is dependent upon the passage of time, or, as in the case of insecticide baits packaged within a closed container, become consumed in a relatively short period of time, leaving a empty container that is no longer effective in delivering a desired result.
Many attempts have been made to provide users with some type of signal or indicator that would allow them to know when the product life has been exhausted. Among these inventions are, Bhattacharjee et al-U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,463--Apr. 12, 1988--Class 436/2, Halpern--U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,295--Aug. 12, 1975--Class 23/253TP and, Bhattacharjee--U.S. Pat. 4,812,052--Mar. 14, 1989--Class 374/102.
While all these invention have greatly improved that state of the art in the use of signal devices they are deficient in that they are complicated to fabricate, dependent on external activator sources, and are expensive to manufacture.
As an example of insecticide products that would be vastly improved if the signal were incorporated in their fabrication patents have been granted to Sherman--U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,980--Mar. 20, 1990--Class 43/131, Von Konhorn, et al--U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,335--Jul. 10, 1979--Class 43/131 and other patents within this class that contain an insecticide or rodenticide product as a component.
While all these inventions have greatly advanced the state of the art in the presentation of rodenticides and insecticides, they are deficient in that they do not allow the user to be able to determine when the product has lost it efficacy due to the passage of time or the estimated consumption of the poisoned substance contained therein.
The purpose of the instant invention is to provide an easily identifiable signal to the user, that a period of time has elapsed since the placement of the product in which either the efficacy of the product has been compromised, or in which it can be estimated that the time elapsed has resulted in spoilage or consumption of the product, thereby making it ineffective.
The use of this Signal Device, as outlined in the instant invention, will allow the consumer or purchaser of the product to be in a position to identify its freshness and usefulness in performing the task that the product has been designed for.
In addition, the Signal Device provides a lost cost, easily affordable method of "dating" a product and building into its design a fixed obsolescence based upon the manufacturers testing of the components, and life studies that have been pre-determined by the fabricator.
These and other new and useful novel features of the Signal Device will become apparent when viewed in conjunction with the description contained herein, and the accompanying art.
Care should be taken to view the Signal Device in its entirety, and the scope and use of the product transcends its description as a device that can only be used with insecticide based products, and relates to its overall use as a signal device for all products.